He's a better defender than Stones with better passing, Stones hasn't been great for City.I don't want a centre half who goes on big runs, his primary goal should be defendingI'd prefer Keane to Stones all day

His passing isn't as good as Stones' but that's not a massive criticism as since people are so frequent to point out Stones' defensive issues, the it surely points to how highly thought of his possession is?

Anyway re Keane he's looked very solid so far.

His speed and quickness on the turn will get tested in some of these games coming up.

But long term if we find a partner who really compliments him then he looks well set.

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The recruitment of Pickford and Keane has stood us in really good stead. Being better than their previous clubs who were just poor sides lucky to have the odd good player. Now we have them hopefully that will help us kick on a bit and attract the next level of player next season too.

We can steal a good player from the minnows at the moment but we need to improve if we're going to attract established players like Giroud.

His passing isn't as good as Stones' but that's not a massive criticism as since people are so frequent to point out Stones' defensive issues, the it surely points to how highly thought of his possession is?

Isn't it? For all the lauding Stones gets he still has a habit now of playing a really risky pass that then gets cut out and lets the opponent start a dangerous attack. Passing ability is only as useful as decision making allows it to be.

Games against the top 6 shouldn't be seen as a free swing anymore. We didn't do too bad last year against them overall and this year we're better equipped.It's this mindset that needs to change.

Where have I said that we should forget about games against the top 6? I'm one of the biggest critics about our approach away from home in these games, for fuck's sake. We should be going into every single one of these games trying to win, because we have the players to beat anyone on our day.

Garbage teams win against the top 4 all the time. Wigan stayed up in 2011/12 because they beat Liverpool, Man United and Arsenal in their last 10 games. Sunderland stayed up in 13/14 in part because they won away at Man United and Chelsea. Would Palace have stayed up if they hadn't won away at Chelsea and Liverpool and beaten Arsenal at home in those last 10 games?

It doesn't mean their players are good though, does it. You can count on one hand the number of players you'd have from them in our first team; you don't really need more than 2 fingers, because you judge a player on as many games as you can, not arbitrarily deciding games against City, Chelsea and Spurs are more important.

Where have I said that we should forget about games against the top 6? I'm one of the biggest critics about our approach away from home in these games, for fuck's sake. We should be going into every single one of these games trying to win, because we have the players to beat anyone on our day.

Garbage teams win against the top 4 all the time. Wigan stayed up in 2011/12 because they beat Liverpool, Man United and Arsenal in their last 10 games. Sunderland stayed up in 13/14 in part because they won away at Man United and Chelsea. Would Palace have stayed up if they hadn't won away at Chelsea and Liverpool and beaten Arsenal at home in those last 10 games?

It doesn't mean their players are good though, does it. You can count on one hand the number of players you'd have from them in our first team; you don't really need more than 2 fingers, because you judge a player on as many games as you can, not arbitrarily deciding games against City, Chelsea and Spurs are more important.

But the points from both of you are valid - teams below we should really be putting to be more regularly and we have also hopefully improved to the point where for the teams above - there will be no more drubbings received, we should be hard to beat and maybe turn one or two draws into victories. Let's wait and see!

But the points from both of you are valid - teams below we should really be putting to be more regularly and we have also hopefully improved to the point where for the teams above - there will be no more drubbings received, we should be hard to beat and maybe turn one or two draws into victories. Let's wait and see!

Yeah, absolutely.

With the new additions we start with a solid enough base that, hopefully, we might see the end of decisions like starting 3 defensive mids at Spurs away.

While not disagreeing with you in general, we also need to take into account that any point against a top 6 team is a point they don't get, and thus lowers our target too.

You've got to apply the reverse as well, any point we prevent those below us getting reduces the likelihood of them catching us.

Ultimately it doesn't matter where we get points, only that we get more points than others. I'd happily take 5/6 drubbings (home or away) a season if we won the rest, whether that was losing to the relegation fodder or last years champions.